Watching birds and the brown bear

Experience the full authenticity of Slovenia. Its untouched nature offers you the unique privilege of watching rare, and in some places even endangered, animals in their natural habitat. You can see a brown bear, the largest European wild beast, from a safe distance or you can enjoy the delightful sounds of courting birds in the Ljubljana Marshes.

Brown bear, photo: Marjan Artnak

In the living room of the brown bear

The feeling that you will experience as you watch the largest European wild beast look for food, lie in a meadow, or even play with its young, is simply without comparison. This is certainly the most authentic and intimate contact with untouched nature and its indigenous inhabitants you might ever experience.

When you first see it, you will be quite taken by the elegance and suppleness of this 400-kilogram furry beauty. Despite their weight, brown bears can run with a speed of up to 50 km/h. If it senses or even sees you, it might stand on two feet and warn of its presence in a manner typical of bears.

In the presence of an experienced hunter, you will be able to walk in its paw-prints, pressed clearly into the mud or soil, and look at the lair where it spends the winter, and you will no doubt wonder how such a big animal can fit into it. Towards the evening, you will climb up into a hunting lookout in a treetop and wait in silence.

Because brown bears keep to a daily routine, the likelihood of seeing one is almost 90%. Most certainly, many animals will walk past the lookout in the meanwhile.

Skies full of birds

Even if you are staying in the very centre of our capital city, you will be gently awoken by the singing of tits, finches, goldfinches, swallows and other birds.

For an even more authentic experience, go bird watching alone or with a guide into the untouched surroundings of nature parks, home to animals, where humans are only occasional guests. Here, you will be able to see countless other, even endangered, species, such as common snipes, red-necked grebes, ferruginous ducks, northern shovellers, common redshanks, and Eurasian curlews.

With equipment that only a guide can provide, you will get the most authentic insight into the life of birds in their natural habitat from a distance that will not disturb them. In spring, you can watch males courting female birds and the subsequent mating, and if you are lucky, later you will see a well-hidden nest filled with eggs, or with little beaks poking out of it, waiting for food. You can even catch the caring parents as they hunt for food or even fly to their young with a worm in their beak.